Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Satya Koya and Dr Lalitha Chalasani on 7 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

However there were areas of practice where the provider should make improvements:

• The practice should ensure that all registers are accurate and that any exception reporting rates above the local or national average should be investigated and addressed.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

The surgery has only recently been built and is a single storey building. It was fully compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act [DDA] so it had been designed to be fully accessible to people with a disability.

We spoke with nine patients on the day of our visit. People were happy with the care that they received. We heard comments such as “The doctors are very nice, they explain things to you”, “the GP’s are good, I am very happy” and “he explains things to me.”

Patients we spoke with confirmed that they had time to discuss their concerns during the consultation and that treatment was explained to them. All of the patients we spoke with were satisfied with their clinical care.

The practice had policies and procedures in place regarding safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

Staff members had access to ongoing training through monthly 'protected learning time' sessions and they told us they had received enough training for their posts.

The practice had systems to assess and monitor quality and had a range of policies and procedures in place for staff to access, which supported the safe running of the service.

The practice had a patient participation group (PPG). A PPG is made up of practice staff and patients that are representative of the practice population. The main aim of a PPG is to ensure that patients are involved in decisions about the range and quality of services provided and, over time, commissioned by the practice.